Saturday started with a very large coffee and a trip across to Central on the Star Ferry. Once we got there, we waited at the pier for Monica to join us from her ferry ride over from Mui Wo, on the far side of Lantau island. One we were all together, Monica took us on a walk around the city.
I don't know what I was expecting. I really didn't read up on HK before our trip. I knew it was crowded, busy, and interesting, but I couldn't have imagined HK any better than it was. You walk the city above the streets, going uphill on a set of joining escalators. As you ride upwards, there are shops and signs on every level of the building, screaming at you to get reflexology, fancy nails, dumplings, or tailor-made clothes. When you see something that interests you, you simply get off, and head down to street level. We made our way around Wellington, looking for a very specific dumpling place. FInding it not yet open, we grabbed smoothies (I'm not sure I trust that they really included my "energy booster" in there) and walked around SoHo. We stopped into a temple, where I got my fortune told by a "master fortune teller" (no, I won't tell you what he said). We then made our way down back toward the dumpling store....
On the way, we stopped into the Lok Cha tea shop, where the sweet japanese woman offered us some delicious jasmine tea. Since the store was empty, she spent some time with us teaching us how to make tea properly and offering us several varieties to taste, including a phoenix oolong that tasted of lychee, a green tea, and black teas. In her broken english she explained more about tea than I ever thought it possible to know. At one point, I found myself getting very woozy, but just blamed it on the jet lag and lack of dumplings and figured I could just soldier on without anyone knowing. Within seconds she was offering sugared ginger. Green tea, she explained, lowers one's blood pressure, and it's important to have something sweet with any kind of lighter tea (white or green). We spent about an hour in the store, talking and tasting teas and she and Monica shared the stresses of being recently moved to Hong Kong. When served black tea, I admitted that I enjoyed it more with milk and sugar. With reckless abandon, she shared that she preferred it with a splash of lemon. "Don't tell Mr. Lok," she said, covering her giggles with her hand.
Following the amazing tea lesson, we went to a dim sum restaurant, clearly full of locals, where we totally go the tourist shaft..nary a chili in our chili chicken. No matter, bellies full, Krisi and I said good-bye to Monica and headed toward the huge line-up for the Victoria peak tram. Unable to bear the thought of waiting another hour to take the tram down, we walked. In sandals. Downhill. For about 2 hours. We finally made it to Lan Kwai Fong (the party district) to eat Thai food (in China...) and drink beer with an Aussie and some Poms. A few beers later, and Krisi and I were toast. On the way home, we narrowly avoided prison, as a drunken Krisi proceeded to (gasp!) drink water on the subway. Very against the rules. Such a troublemaker, that girl.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment